Stories & How To's

Gun Cleaning - How Often Should I Clean My Gun?

By Alfred Bohm

February 22, 2018

Why is Cleaning Our Guns So Important?

Gun cleaning and how we maintain our firearms often comes down to how we were taught during our first interactions with these weapons. One school of thought says your gun should be able to take the abuse with little need for cleaning. The more responsible side says that a gun is a tool that deserves the utmost care. It’s an investment, a part of your legacy that can be passed down through the generations and an instrument of personal defense that needs to be absolutely reliable when it is needed most.

Reliable. If there is one thing we demand out of our firearms is that they are reliable. Whether it be hunting for bull of a lifetime or perhaps in a local pistol competition or most important of them all, when your life is on the line in a personal defense situation. No matter how you look at it, a clean, lubricated, well maintained and functional firearm is something you can’t afford to be without.

What Happens to a Poorly Maintained Firearm?

There are several things that can happen with a poorly maintained gun.

The gun will jam and not properly feed and eject shells do to fouling from carbon, lead and copper.

Rust will form and pitting will occur.

Moving parts will unnecessarily wear and create a “loose” firearm.

Accuracy will diminish in rifled barrels due to pitting and fouling.

Firing pin performance becomes unreliable.

Now That We Know the “Why”, How About the “How”?

Now that we can probably agree that cleaning your firearms is a good idea, how often should you clean your gun?

A safe bet would be every time you discharge your gun. Now there are different degrees of cleaning and maintaining your firearms.

Basic Gun Cleaning

Wipe down the outside with a CLP and rag.

Use a bore cleaning kit (some call it a boresnake) and a CLP to clean the bore of your firearm.

Clean inside of ejection port and all moving parts with a CLP, cotton swabs and brush. Spray a thin layer on all moving parts and allow it to remain on the firearm.

In-Depth Cleaning

Everything you would do for a Basic Gun Cleaning.

Break the gun apart and allow all appropriate parts to soak in a CLP, wipe down and reassemble.

At minimum you should do a basic gun cleaning after every use. When time allows a full breakdown of the firearm is crucial to properly maintaining that weapon in order to get the full life expectancy out of it as well have a gun you can depend on.

While gun cleaning and maintenance is not the sexy part of owning a gun, it certainly is a necessary part. Perhaps it gets a bad name because of the time it takes and the mess it creates, but rest assured that times have change and along with it so has the technology.

With a good CLP, strong cotton swabs and a reliable bore cleaning kit it takes only a fraction of the time that it previously took to clean your weapons and with tradition rod and brush. Plus you get the added bonus of doing a more thorough job.

Sage & Braker is here to help make your life easier by giving you the proper tools to quickly and efficiently clean and maintain your firearms.